Frigid Super Bowl? Dolphins not daunted by elements

Imagine it’s February 2014. Chad Henne and Brandon Marshall are both 29 and in the prime of their careers. Vontae Davis and Sean Smith are veteran shutdown corners. Jared Odrick, Koa Misi, John Jerry, Davone Bess and so many other young players brought in by the Bill Parcells regime have made the Dolphins one of the powers of the AFC.

Then they have to go play a Super Bowl in the snow and cold of New York.

Not fair? Of course it’s not. But the Dolphins have shown over the years they can handle whatever elements are thrown at them. Of the 10 coldest games they’ve played, they’ve won four – and it might have been five had officials not allowed New England coach Ron Meyer the opportunity to have a snowplow clean the field in the Patriots’ 3-0 victory at Foxboro on Dec. 12, 1982.

Bob Kuechenberg was recalling another game at New England that ranked as the coldest in franchise history until it was surpassed by the 10-degree chiller at Kansas City in 2008, a 38-31 Miami win. It was 14 degrees with a minus-37 wind chill when the Dolphins took the field on Dec. 11, 1977.

“I liked playing in cold weather,” Kuechenberg said. “That was the only game at any level that was too cold even for me. Our guys who grew up in the South didn’t like it, but the other team’s got to play in it too.

“Jim Langer and I went out for pregame in T-shirts, just to psyche the Patriots out. A lot of guys were asking for pantyhose to wear, and I was making fun of them. But by the second half, when the sun was going down and it was getting even colder, I was asking for it too. It was getting so cold I couldn’t concentrate on (Bob) Griese’s calls. I couldn’t make the connection between the call and the play it represented.”

The Dolphins hung in all game before losing 14-10. But the Dolphins would return to Schaefer Stadium 15 years later and beat the Patriots 16-13 in overtime on a 23-degree day.

While the talk the past few days is that a cold, snowy day would result in a boring, run-oriented game plan, CBS analyst Rich Gannon said the opposite is actually what happens in such conditions.

“The receivers know their routes, and the pass rushers can’t get traction in the mud, so it actually helps the passing game,” said Gannon, adding that one of the favorite games he played was in the so-called “Tuck Rule” game at New England in the divisional playoffs after the 2001 season.

Just how this group of Dolphins handle such conditions might be in evidence in the finale of the 2010 season, when Miami plays at New England on Jan. 2.